Friday, January 25, 2013

30
Firearms Discovered This Week – 25 of those firearms were loaded and 13
had rounds chambered. Here are pictures of some of the firearms. See a complete
list and more photos below.

Knife
Discovered With Body Scanner – A switchblade was discovered in the
pocket of a passenger after being screened with image technology at
Philadelphia (PHL).

Inert
Ordnance and Grenades Etc. – We continue to find inerthand grenades and other weaponry on weekly basis.
Please keep in mind that if an itemlooks
like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not.
When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can
cause significant delays. I know they are cool novelty items, but it is best
not to take them on a plane. Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

A replica grenade was discovered in a carry-on bag at
Wichita (ICT).

Items
in the Strangest Places –It’s important to check your bags prior
to traveling. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag, you could be
cited and possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples
from this week where prohibited items were found in strange places.

Three knives were discovered in a passenger’s thermos at
Honolulu (HNL). He had traveled through the checkpoint once already and was
permitted to take the knives outside of the checkpoint area to check them in
his baggage. Instead, he attempted to sneak them through in a thermos.

A belt buckle knife was discovered at Los Angeles (LAX).

A sword cane was discovered at Memphis (MEM).

Stun
Guns –Ninestun guns were
discovered this week in a carry-on bags around the nation:Two at Atlanta (ATL), two at Denver (DEN), and one each at Bradley
(BDL), Long Beach (LGB) , Minneapolis (MSP), Sacramento (SMF), Seattle (SEA).

What
Not to Say at an Airport – Statements like these not only delay the
people who said them but can also inconvenience many other passengers if the
checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

While preparing to go through the security lane, a
passenger at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) asked: “Should I remove my gun and bomb,
too?”

A passenger at LaGuardia (LGA) going through the checkpoint
stated: “It’s not like I have a bomb in my bag, but I could have.”

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why
we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our
officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item,
the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent
ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can
face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This
is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we
find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions,
that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply
forgot they had these items.

*In order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a
preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from
what I report in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or
end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be
estimates.